


Snapshots

by kyrilu



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, Introspection, POV Experimental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 06:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/kyrilu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki and Tony in twenty pieces, plus one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chaperoned](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaperoned/gifts).



> Happy extremely belated birthday, bb! I’m sorry; finals and a terrible case of writer’s block is a bad combination. It’s not quite Loki/Tony, but...tell me what you think? Love ya, Fin. :D
> 
> Kinda non-canon with TDW's trailer. I've really missed writing these two. ♥

**1.**

 

Tony is sitting on the rooftop with his legs tucked under him, not really doing anything at all.  If he looks close enough, he thinks he can see the spot in the sky where the void was, the space where he flew the nuke into.  And when he touches his chest, feeling skin instead of metal, he feels free.

 

**2.**

 

Loki is sitting in a metal cell in Asgard feeling the dust swirling all around.  When he closes his eyes he thinks he can almost taste the power that he’d almost achieved.  A world is his.  In the palm of his hand.  King, king, king -- King Loki of Midgard.  When Thor visits, Loki smiles at him gently, knowing that this -- this _brute_ \-- could never understand.

 

**3.**

 

Among the remains of A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D. recovers Maya Hensen’s research.  JARVIS sends it to Tony, and he pours over the papers.  The notes start with the Extremis equation that he had given her; Tony’s eyes play over her neat handwriting, and he shows Pepper.  They both try to remember somebody that they had barely known.

 

**4.**

 

When Frigga visits, she doesn’t reach through the bars to touch him.  As if he’s a strange, dangerous animal.  The pain is clear in her eyes, and Loki wishes that she would just -- just go.  Do gods have mothers?  Do kings have mothers?  (He doesn’t know any real answer to those questions.  He only watches her, silent, in the dark.)

 

**5.**

 

Rhodey and Tony go flying one morning, patrolling the skies for no real reason.  Tony spins in lazy loops; he loves the easy aerodynamics of his newest suit.  Rhodey tells him that he looks ridiculous, and Tony laughs and says, “So does the red-white-and-blue Uncle Sam advertisement,” which makes Rhodey’s mouth twist in consternation, and Tony promises him that maybe he’ll give a toned-down paint job or something.  Like white with a dash of blue and red, the latter color like flames; that’d be _badass_.

 

**6.**

 

Loki is and always was a loner of his own choosing.  The Warriors Three do not come for him; they do not even step in to offer their disgust by his betrayal, their pleasure in this humiliation.  (But Loki does remember the dark-haired girl who glared, and then laughed after he had mischievously cut her hair.  She had smiled at him, which was strange, because her face was always set in determination.  A would-be warrior.)

 

**7.**

 

Tony goes out for shawarma with Bruce, and finally _does_ manage to give him a (very much) shortened version of the whole Mandarin affair.  Bruce listens, and comments wryly, “Well, there goes the symbol of your arc reactor equals Hulk metaphor."  Tony says, “No, not really.”

 

**8.**

 

Odin stops by only to continually suppress Loki’s magic abilities, his single eye glinting with ugly, stifling power.  “For your own good,” Odin says, but, Loki thinks savagely, no matter what his ‘father’ might do, there is still an ice-blue monster underneath his skin.

 

**9.**

 

Pepper gets bad dreams, and when she wakes, remembering her body on fire, fire, fire, Tony holds her and says, “Look, you see, we can have nightmares together now.”  She smiles weakly.  They both shudder against each other.

 

**10.**

 

As a boy, Thor was afraid of bilgesnipe.  Loki always mocked him with his fear, donning a pair of antlers that frightened Thor whenever he saw the shape of them in the shadows.  But in the end, Loki would agree to mock-fight with Thor, and allowed him to kill bilgesnipe-Loki with a wooden sword.

 

**11.**

 

Tony doesn’t know where Steve Rogers has vanished off to.  He thinks about looking for him, but decides that the uprooted old soul deserves a road trip.  After all, he reflects, there’s always the next alien invasion.

 

**12.**

 

A thought briefly crosses Loki’s mind to ask Odin about his real, monstrous father.  Just to see the All-Father’s reaction.  (He doesn’t ask.  There are just some things he doesn’t want to hear.)

 

**13.**

 

On the anniversary of Yinsen’s death, Tony sends his son flowers.  There’s no mention of Ho Yinsen in the papers, although they do commemorate Tony Stark’s invention of the arc reactor and Iron Man technology, and his oh-so-brave-and-daring escape from terrorists.

 

**14.**

 

“I wish you regretted -- repented -- all of what you have done,” Thor whispers against the bars, when he thinks that Loki is asleep.  “Asgard's people liken you to a beast.  Their former prince, a beast.  You are my brother.”

 

**15.**

 

 _What did you see up there?_   the kid had asked Tony.  He was going to say something profound like _the abyss_ but he breaks down instead.  Goddamned panic attack.  In truth: he doesn’t know, not exactly.  He only knew that he was going to die.

 

**16.**

 

Falling from the Bifrost felt like flying.

 

**17.**

 

Drunk, Tony once slurred _I love you_ to a concerned Obie.  It was an unthinking, playful thank-you with maybe a warmer edge underneath.  Years later, he wishes he hadn’t said that.

 

**18.**

 

Loki is not Odinson.  He is not Odinson by simple, biological truth.

 

**19.**

 

Motherfucking Phil Coulson.  Tony shocks the shit out of him by pulling him into a hug.  Phil pats him awkwardly on the back, and announces there’s yet another oncoming disaster over the sound of Tony’s swearing.

 

**20.**

 

“I need your help,” Thor says, and he swears that he’ll kill him.  Loki ignores the threat; he can already see opportunities opening up before him.  (Loki Laufreyson is a conquerer: simple, biological truth.)

 

**+1.**

  
They fight, red-and-gold versus green.  It isn’t the first time, nor the last, and maybe they do notice that there’s something familiar in the other’s eyes, even if they don’t say anything about it.


End file.
